Professor Mark Lemley weighs in on a trademark dispute between In-N-Out Burger and DoorDash for The San Jose Mercury News.

Fast food chain In-N-Out Burger has a legal beef with restaurant delivery service DoorDash and wants it to hold the Double-Double and fries.

In-N-Out claims in a lawsuit that the startup violated trademark law by delivering its food and using its logo on the DoorDash website and is demanding the company stop.

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“Maybe other restaurants will follow suit but as a matter of trademark law, I think it’s a somewhat dubious lawsuit, but it also seems odd as a business matter for In-N-Out to object to people coming to buy their food,” said Mark Lemley, a Stanford Law School professor who teaches trademark law.

Delivery apps do create a middle man if something goes awry with an order, Lemley said, but it’s a bigger leap to claim that DoorDash is confusing customers about the food that’s being delivered to their doorstep.

“The classic way we think about trademark law is I sell you something that purports to be from In-N-Out but it isn’t, then people are confused and hurt. What’s going on here is I’m using your trademark but I’m using your trademark to talk about you and truthfully say, ‘Hey, I’m bringing you food from In-N-Out Burger,’ ” he said.